Not that we needed any more evidence that demand is continuing to outstrip supply in the housing market, but that is exactly what we got in June as new-home sales rose 3.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 592,000, the highest rate since February 2008, MarketWatch reports.
The median price for a new home also increased year-over-year, climbing 6 percent from June 2015. Meanwhile, the supply of homes fell to 4.9 months at the current sales pace.
March, April, and May all had data revisions that increased the sales tallies by a total of 22,000. The average new home sales pace for the second quarter was 576,000, which is 10 percent higher than the 524,000 that was experienced in the first quarter of 2016.
All the signs suggest there will be continued demand from buyers while home builders continue to gain more confidence. So far this year many publicly traded builders have beaten analysts’ earnings forecasts, such as PulteGroup, which just recently reported earnings and revenue above that which was expected.
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